Actually PVC has been around for a long time but for sure not Zip Lock plastic bags. Something is odd here. Regardless, what you should do is start by rinsing all the coins in distilled water to remove any ground type contaminates. Not sure where you found them but in some locations such as near steel mills, power plants or other fossil fuel burning substnces, the ground is usually loaded with Sulfur Acids formed from SO or SO2 in the air and rinsed to the ground by rain. This is known as Acid Rain. If this got into the container, any Copper containing coins became coated with CuSO3 or 4. Regardless, a rinse in distilled water should stop this process and disolve the greenish substances. If any further desires to clean them is decided, you should search this web site for the uses of Acetone.
Back to curiousity. How do you know the pipes are PVC? Is it stated on the pipe? There are numerous types of pipes for burial in the ground. If these pipes are black for instance, they well may be ABS. ABS was a plastic pipe abandoned for usage about the late 40's or early 50's since the ABS stood for Asbestos. It was still being used for some time after that though. If so, you should really wash the heck out of your hands if you handled it and had to cut if for any reason. I'm still wondering about the Zip Lock bag. Only a few years in the making.
Posted 02/21/2008 6:28 pm
I have read here on the forum to use the distilled water to rinse--some of the forum members have even recommended olive oil to soak the coin in. But any rubbing or scrubbing might damage the coins.Let us know what coins/dates/mints you find in the coins--this is very exciting!
